Save money on post

Royal Mail may be on strike, but you can still get your post delivered without forking out a fortune.

It'll come as no news that the Royal Mail is all over the news this week.

The government says that the number of letters being posted is down; disgruntled posties say that in fact postage is up, and the problem is mis-management.

Meanwhile, the rest of us ordinary consumers are caught in the middle, paying more for a less reliable service.

So how can we save money on our post?

Pass the parcel

For parcels weighing more than 2kg, it's almost always cheaper to go though a web courier rather than the Royal Mail.

Check out web parcel companies like Parcel2Go or MyHermes, who will give you a range of quotes from supplies like Fedex and DHL.

Sending an 8kg, 40cm cube within the UK with Royal Mail costs £11.74, with no tracking and compensation up to £39. But Parcel2Go offer the same service with delivery tracking and compensation of up to £50 for just £7.46.

These companies say business is booming due to the postal strike - though you might find they're somewhat busy this week!

Some things to bear in mind: check that you have enough insurance (you can buy extra), and that you don't ship anything on the banned items list (including any kind of liquid). Make sure your weight and size measurements are accurate, too, or couriers have been known to complain.

Shiply fantastic

If you've got something large to move (like furniture), you can use a 'reverse auction' site like Shiply. You simply say what you want shipped, and couriers around the country post bids for the price - you choose the lowest.

Delivery companies love it, because it's a way to make cash from the spare space in their delivery lorries. And it works brilliantly.

I used Shiply to get a car shipped to France - the cheapest quote we got from a professional moving company was £700, but on the site we found a company who did it for £300. Bravo!

Open letter

What about ordinary letters, though? Well, if you're a business customer, there are loads of discount options on bulk mail.

For the rest of us though - unless you write regularly to 250 of your closest friends - it's most likely the Royal Mail or nothing (unless you're lucky enough to have a local rival like Cycle4U in Birmingham, or Wightpost in the Isle of Wight).

But there are still plenty of ways to save.

Size matters

Since 2006, ordinary post with the Royal Mail is no longer charged just by weight. Instead, the size of the envelope counts too.

So a great, scrimping and saving tip is to package up your post into the smallest container possible. (I love doing this - it really feels like you're saving the pennies.)

For example, if you're posting just a few sheets of paper, fold them up into a small A5 envelope, rather than keeping them pristine in a large A4 envelope. In an A5 envelope, first class postage costs 39p... but in an A4 envelope, it's 61p. That's a saving of more than a third!

Really, no-one should sell thin A4 envelopes any more, except the cardboard 'please do not bend' kind for non-folding papers - it's a con. Use A5 or smaller wherever you can.

Marvel at the price differentials here - the cost of a 'packet' of 50g, for example, is over double that of a 'large letter' of the same weight. The difference is a couple of millimetres. It may even be worth sending two small parcels rather than one large one.

Use the Royal Mail's online price calculator and guide to size formats to figure out how to make your packages as tiny, and cheap, as possible.

Second-class no more

It's easy to forget about second-class post, but often there's little difference from first-class.

Officially, first-class post aims for delivery the next working day, while second-class post aims for within three working days. Notice that little word 'aims' though.

Most of us know that first-class delivery is a bit of a lottery, postal strike or no postal strike. So it's almost always worth plumping for second-class (30p rather than 39p for an ordinary letter).

Will it fit?

If you do pay at the post office, always check that you're being charged the right amount.

For a while, the cashiers in my local post office automatically charged me for a packet rather than a large letter, without checking the size - until I pointed it out. (It may have been a fiddle, but given the huge queues, I think they were probably just too busy to check.)

Now they do check - probably they know not to annoy the crazy lady with all the small parcels!

Post from your printer

To beat the queues, buy your postage online with Royal Mail and print it at home - there's no extra cost, and it's very easy.

You'll need scales and a tape measure (to work out how much it'll cost) and a printer. You can print postage onto ordinary paper and glue it on to your packages, so there's no need to buy special labels.

It doesn't save money compared to queuing up and paying at the post office, but it should save you time - and possibly your sanity.

Stockpile stamps

A first-class stamp is a first-class stamp. Even if the price goes up, it's still valid.

So if you think the price of stamps is likely to rise above inflation (and the Royal Mail is  pushing for a 3p rise on the basic 39p first-class stamp) then it may be worth buying stamps now and stashing them away for the future. Especially if you post a lot.

While the future of the Royal Mail looks uncertain, it's pretty clear - sadly - that postage isn't going to get cheaper any time soon.

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